Mmm...Hot Butter!

When I think about the holiday season, I realize that yes, I love the family time, the weather and the spirit of giving. But the thing that I think of most during the holiday season is THE FOOD! There are treats we get to enjoy at this time of year that are the true essence of the holidays for me. I associate many smells and tastes with the magic of the season. And some of them just aren't available at any other time of year, so I take advantage of them while I can. One example is this:

This special product comes to area stores and I get so excited when I see the little yellow tub. This so reminds me of the stuff my mom made when we were kids that I would drink by the gallon if allowed. The only problem is, I don't like rum. So I just drink the batter on its own, hence I drink Hot Butter instead of Hot Buttered Rum. I wanted to find out how many calories were in this stuff (bad idea since it's mostly sugar and butter) so I went to their website. No nutritional info, but a very interesting story about Harvey, the man who invented this stuff back in the 50's and now runs a small factory in Bremerton (a town about 30 minutes away) making only this batter. The man is in his 90's and still going strong. Which goes to show, that drinking this stuff will help you live a very long time. Plus it is SO GOOD! Of course, the container says to use a teaspoon of mix per cup. Bwahahahahaha! That's a good one! I'll just stick with my 3 heaping tablespoons, thanks. So, if you are in the Northwest and you see this nectar of the gods in your local dairy case, do yourself a favor and pick some up. You'll thank me.

But, wait, what if you don't live in the Northwest? What if you are doomed to live in some other boring, Not Northwest, Butter-Rum-Batter free zone? Well, guess what I have for you? My mom used to make an equally deadly version of this every year and because I'm so kind I will share the recipe with you. Mom's is technically better than Harvey's but with the premade stuff I don't have to work so hard. Always a plus. Anyway, go whip up some of this batter to keep in your freezer. And I won't count how many tablespoons you put in your cup if you don't count mine!


Hot Buttered Rum Batter

1 lb. powdered sugar
1 lb. brown sugar
1 lb. butter
1 quart vanilla ice cream, softened
1 Tbl. vanilla extract

Beat together all ingredients. Place in an airtight container and store in freezer.

To make, combine 1 1/2 Tbl. batter, 1 cup hot water, 1/2 jigger rum. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

I told you it was bad for you. What's not to love? Enjoy!

By the way, anybody know what a jigger is?

Thanksgiving and Tea

Wow, I can't believe it is almost the end of November. Only two more days of NaBloMoPo. I really do intend to keep posting. But it will definitely be less frequent as December is a very busy month for me. And you too, I'm sure.

Anyway, thought I'd catch you up on my holiday weekend.

My niece, Madison, made these cutie-patootie decorations in school out of toilet paper rolls. I'm not sure why they are looking to the side and sticking their tongues out. Maybe they are full from too much turkey. I do know that my nephew Max enjoyed pulling their hats off repeatedly.

My poor sister, Monica, came down with the stomach flu on Thanksgiving, so no turkey for her. It was a pretty rotten holiday for her overall. She's trying to look cheery in this picture, unlike her daughter. Madison is a very sympathetic girl, so she's hanging out with mom on the couch.

Mmm, turkey! You can tell it's done because its little timer popped up. It's sitting on this neat rack my mom found that lets you easily lift the entire bird up out of the pan.

Here's the center of the table loaded up with food. Why, yes, we did have a ham as well as turkey. No, I don't know why. Because we did, that's all I've got for you.

After we recovered from pigging out at dinner, we further did ourselves in with pie. Besides pumpkin, we had pecan made by my brother-in-law, Steve, (it was very good!)

and apple pie without any cinnamon. My step-father is allergic, so we had to sprinkle our own cinnamon on there if we wanted some. It didn't really taste the same, but what can you do?

The next day was tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle. You may recall that we did this last year, too, but with a different cast of characters. Unfortunately, my sister still wasn't well enough to come. So besides me, we had

my Aunt Kay (left) and my mom (right). They are wearing crowns because the waitress offered tiaras to the little girls but they wouldn't wear them. So we put them on instead. Plus, we made them look GOOD!

Madison drinking her Almond Cream tea, looking pensive. Actually, I think she's mid-sentence, but I wanted to get bonus points for using the word "pensive."

Kenzie is trying her hardest not to smile in the top picture. Obviously, that didn't work too well for her!

Our tea trays, loaded up with lots of yummy stuff! You would never have guessed that we pigged out at Thanksgiving the night before, because by the end of tea, our trays looked like this:

Overall, I ate WAY too much. But I was able to spend time with my family so that makes it all okay. That and the healthy eating I plan to begin again tomorrow. Right before Christmas. When there is food literally everywhere. Yeah. Oh well, holidays come just once a year, right? Thank goodness!

p.s. Welcome to my 6th official follower, Pam from Sidewalk Shoes. I feel so honored to have all these people reading my lame little blog. Thanks, guys!

Family

The last two days have been so great. I've spent lots of time with my family, and especially some aunts I rarely see. Tomorrow I'm going to visit my dad and his wife. The older I get, the more I appreciate the people who raised me. I also find I'm so much more interested in their history and the paths they chose. I love to hear old family stories, and who remembers what. I guess I'm realizing that they won't be around forever, and that I need to appreciate the time I have with them.

The other day, I was talking with a friend I know from my last school. We realized that the good times we had there are long gone, for a number of reasons. I told her that where I work now, these are the "good times." Someday I will look back and remember this place and time with fondness. That's how I feel about my family, too. Right here, right now, these are the good times. And I need to appreciate them in the moment as well as keep them in my heart. Some day I will be sitting at my niece's dinner table for Thanksgiving, sharing stories from the here and now. And I hope these are the times they will remember with as much love as I do.

Christmas Fun

I'm so glad I got to spend Christmas with my family. Since I went down a day early to avoid weather problems, (Ha! Take THAT snow!) I got to watch my sister's children open their presents. They were so cute in the matching PJ's that their mom and dad got them.

Here's Max opening his talking helmet:

It says things like "Warning, danger ahead," and "Code Red." Apparently, it does NOT say, "Danger Will Robinson!" so I said it over and over again to make up for the oversight.

Here's Kenzie with her "Just Like You" doll:

I think she's unwrapping the little earrings for her doll to wear. They didn't have cool stuff like this when I was a kid. I love that she's wearing one of the bows on her pajamas. I always wear some part of the wrapping accoutrement when I open presents. Glad to see she's crazy like me following my example. (Do I get bonus points for using "accoutrement" in that last sentence?)

Here's Madison checking out one of her books:

I somehow managed to chop off her head, so you can't see her new headband. It goes with her leg warmers. Leg warmers!! I guess everything truly does come back in style again, even if it shouldn't. I probably got such a bad angle on this because it was 7:00 a.m. and I was just too tired to get up off my chair for the picture taking. These three pics are the only decent ones I got, and they're not that great. But I was really really tired!!

After hanging out for a bit, we went over to my brother's house. They only live about a mile away. However, they are on a pretty good sized hill and it was so snowy and icy that no one could leave once they parked. There was a lot of chaining up and fancy maneuvering going on to get people home.

Here is my brother, Tim and his wife Angela:

Aren't they gorgeous? There was an uneven distribution of the good-looking genes in my family. As in they went to everyone but me. (But I got lots of the smart genes...or so I like to think!) Tim and Angela, of course, have beautiful children. After I ask them, hopefully I can post pics of their two boys, Carter and Bryce.

It suddenly dawned on me this year, that my brother is a foodie. I know he likes to cook and play around with recipes, but it never occurred to me that he really loves food. Part of this realization was from the fabulous dinner they served, which featured a Lamb Rib Crown Roast. I'd never had this cut of meat before, and it was AMAZING! It was perfectly cooked and they served it with an herb reduction. I must have eaten at least 4 pieces. I've never had lamb that was so tender before. Now I understand why they prepare Lamb Rib Chops on Top Chef all the time. They rock!

The other thing that made me realize Tim's foodie tendencies was this appetizer:

They made dates stuffed with marcona almonds and bleu cheese and wrapped them in bacon. I have always wanted to make this. But I was afraid of the dates, and it's a bit out of my price range (I'm playing the "poor teacher" card on this one.) They were SO GOOD!

Monica was the first to sample one, so I commemorated the occasion.

Monica showing off her bacon wrapped stuffed date.

Monica about to take a bite of her bacon wrapped stuffed date.

Monica making the "yum, this is a really good bacon wrapped stuffed date" face.

See what I mean about the good-looking genes? My sister is gorgeous! Back when I was young and skinny, people used to ask us if we were twins. HA HA HA! I wish!

Overall, it was a great Christmas. I hope your holiday was also filled with family, food and love.

Whoo-hoo! and Queen Mary

I did it! I completed NaBloPoMo and posted for 30 days straight! Now admittedly, not all of my posts were noteworthy. I occasionally put up videos or pictures of puppies to disguise the fact that I had nothing of any value to say. I'm really glad I did this so early in my blogging experience so I could get it out of my system. Now I feel like I'm in the habit of writing consistently, but I won't feel pressured to post if don't have any thing I really want to share.

Now on to food! My favorite topic!

On Friday, most of the girls/women in my family went to tea at the Queen Mary Tea Room in Seattle. My mom didn't come because she was recuperating from putting on Thanksgiving ALL BY HERSELF. See what you get when you don't let me help? Anyway, after getting a late start, being stuck behind the First Avenue Bridge when it went up, and taking many wrong turns, we finally arrived. The shop is small and cozy, but a little over decorated for my taste. You could tell they've been in one location for a while. You know how when you live somewhere for a long time you just keep accumulating Stuff and you don't always have a place for all the Stuff? That's what it reminded me of. But in a cute, Victorian way. I'm not a big fan of knick knacks, so maybe it's just me.

The very first thing I saw when we sat down was this:

You probably can't tell, but this bowl was HUGE! I knew I was in good hands. There is no way, even with my raging sugar addiction, that we could possibly use all that sugar in one sitting. Yay! I thought the red and green sugar was a super cute idea as well.

After we got our menus, they brought by some little tea sample cups. They have their own tea line, so they gave out some of their seasonal flavors for us to try.

They were good, but neither really spoke to me (seeing as I only drink Vanilla) but I think everyone else liked them. The flavors were like Holiday Spice or Gingerbread or something like that? Hey Monica, if you remember could you post the flavors in comments? I don't remember their real names.

The table was very cute. Each person had their own cup, each one in a different style. My favorite was my sister-in-law, Angela's. I think she thought it was too plain, but I liked the simplicity of it.

We all ordered Afternoon Tea, and the kids got the Children's Tea. We each got our own pot of tea. Again, these pots were HUGE. Most places I've been give you a 2-3 cup pot. The advantage is that you can usually try lots of different flavors with each pot. The disadvantage is that you have to wait for someone to refill it when you run out.

With this big thing, I could have served the whole table. They included an infuser (which is why the top is caddy-whompus) and if you can see in the reflection, there was a little tea holder to put the infuser on when your tea was ready. Since I am the Vanilla queen, this was great for me. I don't usually switch flavors, and I didn't have to wait for refills. This was the first time ever that I had tea left in the pot when I was done eating.

My nieces each got a little 2 cup pot of tea, which was just right for them as they only drink about half a pot anyway. I LOVED this pot. I actually looked for it at the tea shop afterwards but couldn't find it. Something about the flowers and the colors really called my name. Not that I need another tea pot, but I still want it. Maybe I'm just a sucker for realistic looking flowers.

We started with a sorbet trio and a fabulous shortbread cookie. Sorry no pic, I was hungry! I think the sorbet flavors were pear, mango and passionfruit. The pear was my favorite. It was a nice touch, but it was odd for me to start out with something so cold. I would have liked it more in-between courses. Again, probably just me being picky. As long as I'm being critical, can I also mention that the Queen Mary does not offer half and half with their tea? They had milk which they said was Whole Milk (we weren't buying it) and offered up whipping cream when we asked about the half and half. I thought that was a little odd. When I'm out to spoil myself with tea, I want me some fat! Okay, done complaining.

Next they brought everyone a plate. I thought this pattern was just gorgeous.

Since the plate I got wasn't in this pattern, I stole my sister's plate when she went to the bathroom. :-) No, I'm not kidding!

Out came our three-tiered service. Since there were four of us getting tea, they put two servings on the plates. The sandwiches were okay. There was a chicken salad that was too heavy on the mustard for my taste. The turkey with cranberry was good. My very favorite was the pear and blue cheese with walnut. The blue cheese was mixed with  cream cheese (I think) and the pear was super ripe and sliced very thinly. The walnuts were few and far between so they didn't overpower the flavor. I could have eaten a whole plate of them!

The top tier combined all three courses together (I would have preferred my desserts be separated...ew, my sausage roll is touching my cookie!) but I'm sure that once again this is me being picky. Wow, how obsessive-compulsive am I? I had no idea until I started writing this. Hey! Stop rolling your eyes, Monica! Anyway, the savories were a yummy sausage roll in puff pastry and a smoked salmon quiche...both very tasty. The breads were a currant scone and a crumpet. The desserts on top were a snickerdoodle and a thumbprint raspberry cookie.

The middle tier held the fruit and desserts. The fruit was very fresh and had lots of variety. They even included pomegranate seeds. The fruit bread was delicious. Monica let me have her piece, too. (I traded her for my cheesecake, which was peppermint flavored.) And the last thing was a cute little gingerbread bite with whipped cream. It was a very nice selection and mostly made my taste buds happy.

The children's tea gave them a choice of PB & J or toasted cheese. They also got the sorbet with us, and then fruit and desserts on top. I love the big crown cookie with the tea room's initials on it. I believe their desserts were some the same, and some different than ours to fit a kids palate. The girls seemed very happy with it.

Overall we had a really good time. The Queen Mary is a little on the pricy side, but I'm sure that's partially location, as I usually get my tea farther south. I would definitely go back. But next time I'm bringing my own half and half!

*picture of tea room from www.queenmarytea.com

Over the River and Through the Woods

Thanksgiving this year was at my Mom's. This was not unusual. What was unusual is that both my sister's family and my brother's family came up from Portland. It is the first time in over a decade that all of my siblings have been together for this holiday. It was really wonderful to be able to spend this time with them.

Amazingly, with 15 people (10 adults, and 5 kids under age 8) there were no major melt downs. We hung out, played some games, entertained the kids and ate A LOT. My mother is of the I-want-to-do-it-myself variety. It makes her happy not to let anyone be involved  in the meal process. So although we each brought a side dish, she spent the whole time in the kitchen making a huge meal and shooing out anyone who tried to help.  This used to frustrate me, but now I just accept that this is what makes her happy, and I make sure throughout the day that she knows I am there if she should suddenly fall down a flight of stairs or develop a tumor ("It's not a tumor!") or in any way become incapacitated. I will take over the baster if called upon!

Anyway, the food was fabulous as usual. Here's a little glimpse into our holiday feast:

The table set for the big event. See the chair down at the very end on the right? The orange one? The one with the broken back that's been taped together and covered with a towel? That would be my seat. It's so good to be loved. Yeah...

Mmmm....turkey. We have a majority of dark meat fans (me included!) so that's what went first. My mom makes a great, moist, flavorful turkey. Must be all that basting.

On the left, my mom's famous stuffing (from an old Campbell's Soup cookbook) and on the right my sister-in-law's sweet potatoes with a brown sugar topping.

What is Thanksgiving in America without some type of funky salad? The green one is a lime Jell-o salad with cottage cheese, pineapple and walnuts. The yellow one is Ambrosia, with coconut, mandarin oranges and marshmallows maybe? I like the green one. My sister likes the yellow one, so she can probably tell me what's in it. When I write it out, they both sound pretty disgusting.  But Thanksgiving calls for weird family foods like this. Then we have two styles of canned cranberry sauce, plain and whole berry. My sister makes a killer warm cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries. I missed having it this year. Maybe next time.

We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, broccoli, and homemade rolls, not to mention all the appetizers we had at lunch time "to tide us over" until dinner. For dessert there was apple-currant crumble, pumpkin pie and a cheesecake. I always forget to take pictures when I get full, so sorry, no dessert shots. I made the pumpkin pie. It's a Bisquick recipe my mom always made when we were kids. It's a crustless pie but really smooth and good. You mix all the ingredients in a blender, poor in a pan and bake. Couldn't be much easier. I'll post the recipe tomorrow after I find my Bisquick cookbook and look for a picture of the pie.

I was planning to add more pictures of our day, as well as highlighting my other two nephews. But I forgot to ask everyone if that was okay. So I'll hopefully have more family pics tomorrow. Plus, most of us female-type people went to a new tea room together this morning. See you soon for the official review.